http://hdl.handle.net/11189/2903 2026-08-12T18:32:53Z http://hdl.handle.net/11189/8507 Title: Policy analysis as “text” in higher education: challenging South Africa’s “Use of Official Languages Act” : a case-based approach Authors: Ralarala, M. K. Abstract: Policy science literature demonstrates that deeper insight into notions of the policy process, such as of policy formulation and policy-making, can be drawn from policy analysis. Some scholars have consequently paid serious attention to policy analysis. In this article, definitions of policy offered by scholars in the field of policy science are deliberated. Thereafter, the article engageswith policy analysis from the perspective of policy text. This article employs a case study to scrutinise the Use of Official Languages Act 12 of 2012,particularly the South African Qualification Authority’s language policy development and formulation process as a unit of analysis. From a conceptual and analytical perspective, the article draws on the notion of presupposition as a viable tool for analysing policy text. Furthermore, a textual cycle is proposed, and an account of pertinent research questions is provided. Finally, the article highlights some implications for transformation in higher education pertaining to policy text. 2019-01-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/11189/7454 Title: Travelling into the other’s world: South African preservice teacher education students’ construction of difference, belonging and identity Authors: Gachago, Daniela; Bozalek, V; Ng’ambi, D Abstract: Against the backdrop of continuing racism ‒ both overt and subtle – in South Africa’s classrooms, this article describes one lecturer’s attempt at facilitating conversations around race relations in South Africa with nine pre-service student educators. Using Bamberg’s (2012) positioning analysis to analyse how students constructed stories of difference, belonging and identity it transpired that students tended to position themselves first and foremost along racial lines, revealing their experiences of continuing academic and social segregation. Although students expressed a desire to overcome these divides, they struggled to visualise a world where black and white students could engage beyond their comfort zones, moving beyond the narratives with which they grow up. Lugones’ (1987) concept of world-travelling and her suggestion that world travelling might be more difficult for those who are at most ease in their lives, was useful to unpack and understand the different roles students performed. Students’ stories also showed the importance of destabilising dominant understandings of subjectivity, by allowing the emergence of fragmented narratives in difficult conversations. Recommendations of how to use narratives to facilitate students’ world travelling include the emphasis on intersectionality, fluidity and complexity in students’ stories but also discuss the challenges when facilitating such a process and the importance of self-reflexivity on the part of the facilitator 2018-01-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/11189/7453 Title: To care or not to care ‒ reflections on the ethics of blended learning in times of disruption Authors: Swartz, B. C; Gachago, Daniela; Belford, C Abstract: The recent student protests in South African Higher Education have highlighted both the opportunities and challenges of blended/online learning in higher education. This article describes two lecturers’ attempts at continuing teaching online during the 2016 campus closure at a large University of Technology in South Africa. Using Tronto’s Ethics of Care lens and in particular her moral characteristics of care, namely attentiveness, responsibility, competence, responsiveness and solidarity, we reflect on the ethics of our practices when moving towards more open educational practices. Recommendations on academic staff development that promotes ethical open practices conclude the article. 2018-01-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/11189/7452 Title: Creating “safe-ish” learning spaces ‒ attempts to practice an ethics of care Authors: Sykes, P; Gachago, Daniela Abstract: One way to approach the project of decolonising the university is to employ decolonising pedagogies, which allow the whole of people’s lived experience into teaching and learning spaces, affirm this experience as worthy of scholarly attention and create a dialogue between experience and theory. Encouraging the sharing of personal stories among diverse and differently positioned students, however, brings up questions about “safe spaces”. Using Tronto’s ethics of care as a normative framework, we will reflect on a range of snapshots that exemplify ethical dilemmas encountered in a teacher education classroom within a digital storytelling project. Based on this analysis two main assumptions are challenged: that safe spaces exist, and that safety is something that can be bestowed on students by the lecturer. We argue for teaching and learning that facilitates a heightened self-awareness on the part of (in particular white) educators about their own gendered, classed and raced subjectivities and how these play out in the classroom ‒ a practice of care both towards others and towards the self. This self-awareness and self-care needs to be matched by the development of facilitation skills that may help to create learning spaces that re-affirm difference among learners while also enabling generative dialogue. We conclude with practical suggestions on how to implement such an attempt at practicing the ethics of care in the classroom. 2018-01-01T00:00:00Z